Hermione's Birthday Surprise!
by bimah
Summary: This is just a short Dramione story I am writing for Hermione's Birthday. WARNING: Major fluff in Chapter 2. Also, the Epilogue will be NC17.
1. Chapter 1

Part I

Hermione Granger was having the worst day of her life! And it was her birthday for Merlin's sake!

First, she hadn't gotten any gifts or birthday wishes from any of her friends. Not even from Harry, Ron, or Ginny. In fact, it would almost seem like they were purposely avoiding her. Only yesterday, she had tried Flooing Ginny, but she said she was very busy and that she would Floo back as soon as she could. Well, it has been more than 24 hours now and she had received not one Floo call. From anyone! Not even a 'Happy birthday' singing-gram.

Honestly, all she wanted on her birthday was to spend some quality time with the people who cared about her. Only, it would seem they don't care about her after all.

She wondered what Malfoy was doing right this moment. Surely he would've have remembered her birthday. In fact, he would probably have insisted that she go out and have fun rather than walk gloomily toward her house.

Malfoy and Hermione have been in a very friendly relationship these past two years working together at the Ministry. They had lunch together almost every single day now. He had not suddenly turned into a polite gentleman mind you, no, he was still the snarky, evil, conceited bastard that he was at school. The only difference was that most of his hatred was not directed at her anymore. In fact, most of the time she would happily join his intellectual raving about the corrupt and unfair dealings of the Ministry.

She smiled, thinking about how he knew when she needed a laugh and would come up with the perfect way to make her laugh. His witty, snarky and slightly sadistic personality was so much easier to endure, and even enjoy when it was not directed at her. But he had taken a two-week mysterious leave for some important business that he would NOT tell her. Humph, what could possibly be so important that he couldn't even tell her?

She sighed, thinking of how lonely she felt without him. How much she missed him, how much she really needed him in her life and it hadn't even been a day since he left. She couldn't believe how much she had started to depend on the blond man who makes her day a little better with a smile or a wink. And now all she wanted to do was cry. But it was her birthday for Merlin's sake, and Malfoy would say she should stop this shenanigan and get her sorry arse home to drink herself 'Happy Birthday'.

She started toward her house with a little more determination in her step now. She couldn't believe she was going to take Malfoy's advice of all people. But he was right though. She should not make herself feel even worse just because Harry was too busy with work and Ginny, his wife. Ginny had a lot on her hands because of her newborn baby and Ron had to deal with Lavander, his seven-month pregnant wife.

And then she made the worst mistake of all. She tried to imagine herself with someone she would love enough to spend the rest of her life with. She felt really disturbed by the fact that she did not feel even a tiny bit awkward for thinking about having children with Malfoy of all people. Really, it should make her want to run for the hills, except now she was wearing a huge sappy grin on her face thinking about how lovely her life would be if she were to marry him.

She now thought that she had probably started having feeling for him a long time ago but it was only now that she was able to accept them, to only herself mind you. She did not fancy embarrassing herself by telling him about these kinds of things. Lord only knows he can't stand such mushy declarations. He would probably faint or worse, run as far away as possible from her to escape the clutches of things like love and marriage.

But at least she knew now why her heart started beating faster whenever he looks at her. Why she wanted to melt into a puddle of goo when he smiles at her. And especially why she saw, dreamed, and thought about him day and night. Yup, she was definitely smitten for the wonderful, amazing, magnificent, stubborn Slytherin. He had captured her heart with a smile and the strange thing was that she didn't want it back.

She hoped Malfoy was happy now; he had made her life a complete farce and he didn't even know it. Damn him, and his stormy eyes and his thoroughly kissable lips. With that thought still fresh in her mind, she said the required enchantments and unlocked the door of her house.

It was the house that her parents had bought for her in London near her work and friends. It was a sweet eighteen, coming of age, type of a gift. That way they could keep in touch with her since she would have to live in the Muggle world and she could be near her work and friends too. Too bad none of those so-called friends were here to keep in touch with. They forgot her after all, so she thought she was definitely entitled to a bit of anger at them, even though they were undeniably detained with their personal problems.

She blinked rapidly, when she opened the door, she found her vision blurred by thousands of candles floating in her house. There were only two explanations for this predicament. Either she had somehow managed to open someone else's house or someone had broken into hers. And there was only one person in the world, Wizarding or Muggle, who could manage to break into her house and live to tell the tale or in this case, place thousands of floating candles in her sitting area.

"Draco," she whispered to the seemingly empty house.

She smiled for the second time that day and stepped into her apartment, closing the door behind her. Ignoring the candles, the stacks of presents on the floor and the romantic dinner for two, she followed the trail of rose petals into her bedroom.

There, standing next to her bed, leaning over some picture of hers, was the object of most of her thoughts. He was dressed in formal black dress-robes, looking the part of the devilishly handsome man that he was. Honestly, it should be illegal for him to wear anything decent because he would put the entire collection of Wizarding Weekly's models to shame. Sweet Circe, he was making her knees week without even looking at her.

As if sensing her presence, he turned and greeted her with the most dazzling smile she had ever received from him. Merlin, if she wasn't weak in the knees already! But she had to pull herself together. Lord knows what was showing in her eyes, too much probably, but how could anyone expect her to remain calm when he was looking at her like that?

Her heart was beating so loudly that she was sure he could hear. As he strode towards her, she tried to school her features into just genuine surprise and willed her treacherous heart to calm down.

The gleam in his eyes brought her back to her surroundings and she wondered suddenly what was he doing here? Didn't he tell her just today that he was leaving right away to parts unknown, taking care of his very important business? Then why was he standing in her room making her feel like some ridiculous, tightly corseted romance heroine with low blood sugar?

"Dra-… Malf- …what-…why?" She managed to squeak out before heaving as much amount of air into her lungs as possible, to steady the million questions whizzing around in her mind.

"Hello to you too Granger." He chuckled, clearly amused at rendering her speechless and relishing in the one thing that nobody else had the wits to do to her.

"What's going on?" Her heart leaped into her throat as he drew menacingly close. She wanted to be certain that what she thought was happening was really happening and not her over-analyzing mind making it seem like what she wanted to happen. She was not to going to jump to any conclusions before he made his intentions completely clear. She was not a fool, after all.

"Well Granger, in the real world, yes even in the wizarding world, extremely handsome, incredibly intelligent and incomparably charming men, like me, try to do something nice for pretty yet annoyingly stubborn girls like you."

"Oh - " But before she could show him exactly where he could shove his charming personality, he drew in closer, making her forget everything other than the steely gray eyes that were devouring her with such intensity that she was sure she would burn from the heat.

"Happy birthday, Granger" His hot breath fanned on her cheeks, making her beet red. Next, he brought his finger near her flaming cheeks, tracing it down towards her lips and whispering, "You are beautiful with your cheeks on fire like that, did you know?"

Her lips parted as his drew near hers, stopping only two inches from hers.

"By the way, you should definitely consider publishing that diary of yours," he then continued snickering, ignoring her wide-eyed expression, "the things you wrote in there, you'd make a fortune!" The slimy, evil bastard managed to inform her without rolling onto the ground with laughter.

The nerve of him! Going through her private thoughts like that and then making a mockery out of her. It was times like these that proved to her that underneath it all he was still the conniving, evil, loathsome teenager she thought she had left at school. Oh, how he could make her want to kiss him in one moment and strangle him in the other.

He outright guffawed at the look of horror and outrage on her face, but saved himself from his cruel demise by giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. Then, grabbing her hand he tried to lead her towards the rest of surprise.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Part II

Draco was hopelessly trying to get Hermione to move, but she wouldn't budge.

She was still mad at him and thus proceeded to give him a glare that he so richly deserved.

He sighed dramatically and looked at impatiently, "Come on Granger, I didn't spend thirty minutes standing outside your house trying to break your enchantments, which were impeccably complex by the way, to stand around all night. I have dinner prepared for us." He trudged her along giving her another impatient pull.

Momentarily forgetting her anger, she gave him a look of complete disbelief. "You prepared dinner?" She didn't even care how shrill her voice sounded. Honestly! He didn't really expect her to believe that, did he?

After giving her an irritated look he informed her, "Don't be Daft Granger it doesn't suit you. Of course, I didn't prepare it myself. Now will you move already? I'm almost famished waiting for your sorry little behind to join me." 

She pursed her lips and reached for impeccable amount of patience that she knew she would need to get through the rest of the night. He was such an impudent little sass! Not even twenty minutes in his presence and her hand was already itching to reach for her wand to castrate him.

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" Now since she was on familiar grounds with him she decided to voice her previous, unanswered concerns.

"To have dinner with you of course, it's your birthday. Or did you forget?" He gave her a look. She was very good at reading his looks by now. There was the infamous 'How-very-Gryffindor-of-you' look that she received from him on a daily basis, the 'will-you-shut-up' look and the one she hated the most, the one he was giving her now. It was the 'Are-you-really-that-daft' look.

"Of course I didn't forget my own birthday Malfoy, but forgive me for being suspicious as you clearly told me today that you are leaving for some of your important business." She would have spat on him too if he weren't so far.

"Oh, that." He chuckled, shaking his head. "You should have seen the look on your face when I told you that. If I didn't knew any better I would say you were heart broken but then again why wouldn't you be? After all, all your friends had been avoiding you and then the most handsome guy you knew was abandoning you on your birthday. Well it would make anybody upset."

Oh, how she wanted to slap his face free of that smug expression. She had never in her life before felt the need to resort to violence, except for when she was in his presence. Flushing to the root of her hair she replied, "How did you know my friends had been avoiding me?"

"I told them to avoid you. It was all part of the surprise." He then proceeded to give her a suspicious look, "Are you sure you are feeling alright Granger? Your work must be wearing you down because five years ago you would've have picked up on that before even getting here." He brought his finger to prod at her head to make sure she hadn't bumped it somewhere. She swatted his hand and flushed scarlet.

"What do you mean you told them to avoid me?" She couldn't believe she had been foolish enough to even think that her friends would forget her 25th birthday.

As if mimicking her thoughts he said, "You didn't actually believe that they would forget your birthday did you?" He was snickering now. Maybe she really has gone daft!

"God Granger, it took me days to convince them to let me surprise you this way. They only agreed when I told how helplessly in love with me you are and ... What?" He asked when she looked like she was about to explode.

"I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH YOU, YOU POMPOUS, INCORRIGIBLE, DESPICABLE, HORRIBLE MAN." She blushed crimson. She couldn't believe he had just said that to her.

"Such beautiful poetry." He snickered. "Come on, you can serenade the rest of it during dinner." She silently followed the prat, willing herself not to freak out. Just as she was about to calm down, a horrible thought occurred to her. What if he did all this because he felt bad for her? No! She will not be pitied by Malfoy!

"Why are you doing all this? You don't have to do anything for me." She said tremulously, trying to keep her voice steady.

He sighed, as he was once again delayed from his food, "I know I don't Granger, I wanted to do this."

"Why?" She asked breathlessly.

"Why?" He repeated annoyance apparent in his gesture. He furrowed his brows and then looked at her like she had just told him Professor Snape was getting married. "Isn't it obvious?"

"No." She replied, shaking her head. She has never been more confused in her life.

He looked thoughtful for a moment as he tapped his finger on his chin, "You know what Granger, I think I'll just let you figure that one out by your self. Now can we please eat? I don't think my stomach has ever growled at me like this before." He gave her a pleading look and then sighed with relief when she relented and took his outstretched hand.

She was not going to let him of the hook that easily but if she were to be honest with herself, she was rather starving too.

She let him lead her through the candle lit room, past the pile of presents on the floor. When she raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, he merely snorted and said, "Don't look at me. Those are all from your friends and family. I still have mine with me. And I will give it to only if you let me have some food." He pulled the chair for her and then sat across from her.

In any other circumstances he would have just had his house-elves serve them, but knowing Granger's sensitivity towards the creatures, he avoided the whole ordeal and simply enchanted the food to stay warm and fresh. He really didn't want anything ruining this dinner.

He opened the champagne and poured some in her glass as well as his own. The dinner was a quiet affair. They both kept mostly to themselves, nervous for what was to come afterwards.

In contrast to how calm Draco looked, he was a nervous wreck inside. He had bluffed when he told her it was obvious that she was in love with him, in all honesty he didn't have a clue. So it was natural for him to be a little anxious concerning how she would react to the actual surprise that is to come.

After gulping down the last contents of her glass, she set the glass down and levered a look towards the blond slytherin when he stood up. He walked around the table and held out his hand for her. Confused out of her wits, she took it and stood up, unprepared for the jolt of awareness which coursed up her spine when he wrapped his fingers around hers.

He brought her closer, depositing her hands on his chest and looked down at her. Bringing her chin upward with his fingers he looked down, two stormy grey eyes meting a set of wide brown ones. The speech that he had prepared for this moment fled from his mind as he thought of all the possible ways this could go wrong. He would have to improvise it would seem.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet Granger, the reason I am doing this is because of you." Ignoring her confused expression he continued as the speech started coming back to him. "Granger, there is no way I could possibly describe how much you have come to mean to me. You forgave me for all my unforgivable blunders and accepted my friendship. You brought me back to life with your never-give-up attitude and I'm truly grateful. I can't go a single day without that beautiful smile of yours and I'm not stupid enough to let you out of my life. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm in love with you. I think I have been since the day I met you. It was stupid of me to keep denying it. Say you'll marry me?"

He let his eyes do the rest of the talking as he took out his gift for her. He had figured out that he was in love with a long time ago but was not able to make any sense of it. After all, it was absolutely barmy that he was in love with her and even barmier that he wanted to marry her. But, as he reminded his confused self again, it was also true, and so he had planned the entire week before her birthday to make sure she would say 'yes'. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and that was that. He was not going to give up even if she declines though. It would just mean he had to try harder. But he was hoping he doesn't have to resort to more _slitheriny_ ways.

She gasped loudly when she saw the huge emerald green ring. The 'M' on the sides indicated it was a family heirloom, which meant this was no joke. She breathed heavily trying to control her mind from going numb. No matter what she had thought for tonight, this was not one of the possible outcomes she had foreseen. And she still wasn't sure she had heard him correctly.

"Wh- What?" She asked breathlessly.

"Marry me…Hermione?" He used her first name to make sure she understood the intensity of the situation.

She closed her eyes, his eyes had portrayed his earlier declaration, and she wanted to savor this moment forever.

But then it hit her. This was real. And what was she doing? She asked herself. The man that she was in love with was asking her to marry him and all she could do was clutch to his hand, hoping this was not a dream? She opened her eyes and gave him her most dazzling smile ever.

The tears shining in her eyes were tears of joy as she replied, "Yes Draco, of course I'll marry you!" she managed without sobbing hysterically. After placing the enormous heirloom on her hand, he proceeded to give her the most breathtaking smile she had ever received from him. Grabbing her chin between his finger and thumb he brought his lips on hers to claim her as his.

She moaned into his mouth, welcoming his explorations. Encouraged by her response, Draco pulled her into his arms, one hand splayed along her lower back and the apex of her bum, while the other cupped the back of her head, fingers treading into her hair. He tilted his head to devour her completely and was rewarded by an accompanying groan as her hand moved up his shoulders into his hair.

Breaking the kiss, she struggled to breathe. Panting slightly, she looked him straight in the eye and announced that it would probably be very beneficial for both of them to go and consummate their freshly nuptials. In response, he agreed immensely.

TBC

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A.N. Alright simmer down everybody, I know I said that this fic might include some NC-17 stuff, not to worry it will be in the Epilogue, I promise. ::winks:: 

- bimah

PS. Ha! There. I have proven once and for all that I can do fluff. THAT was the Fluffiest thing written in the history of the world! Muahahaha...ahem... Okay maybe not, but it was really, REALLY fluffy ::smiles sheepishly:: Sorry, a friend of mine told me that i couldn't do fluff to save my life and so naturally i was like "BRING IT ONNNN!!!!"


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